There is an urgent need to reduce Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and premature mortality from air pollution, projected to double by 2050 in low- and middle- income countries due to population growth and increases in urban air pollution. A clean air, low carbon transition in rapidly growing cities can deliver substantial public health, environmental, and socioeconomic benefits, by lowering emissions from the most polluting sectors, and reducing personal exposure to air pollution. Making cities more walkable and cycle friendly, improving public transport, and making clean household fuels and technologies more widely available will reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and help prevent NCDs through better respiratory, cardiovascular and mental health.

The specific objectives of the Healthy-Polis workshop are to:

Evaluate and promote urban policies and interventions aiming to improve air quality and provide multiple health co-benefits, particularly focusing on low- and middle- income countries.

Discuss innovation in urban health and environmental sustainability research and practice, focusing on the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.

Provide a forum for interdisciplinary collaboration on urban environmental health and sustainability, particularly focussing on cross-sectoral, cross-city interactions between the global North and South.

In particular, this interactive workshop will address the ICUH conference theme of Governance of Complex Systems and the importance of different actors in promoting low carbon urban development and effective clean air interventions.

Organisers:
Prof. Sotiris Vardoulakis, Professor and Director of Research, Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), UK.
Prof. Stuart Piketh, Professor and Director of the School of Geo- and Spatial Science, Unit for Environmental Science and Management, North-West University (NWU), South Africa.
Dr. Esther Buregyeya, Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health at Makerere University School of Public Health, Uganda.
Samuel Etajak, Research Fellow at Makerere University School of Public Health, Uganda.